Friday, February 22, 2019

To The Moon And Back

This morning Israel (and Nasa) launched the first Israeli Moon Lander. This is huge. Only three other countries in the world have ever landed on the moon.

Russia landed the first unmanned rocket on 13th September 1959. America was first to put a man on the moon on 20th July 1969. And China landed an unmanned something in 2013. We are the fourth country in the world to go to the moon!

I'm writing this at 4.10 am. No this is not part of my get up early regime. This was a special early rise to watch the space launch. Although it wasn't actually planned. I mean the space launch was planned obviously, but as we went to bed last night I said to DD, "do we really want to get up at 3.30 to watch the launch?"
"Nah," she replied, "we'll watch it in the morning."

Then I woke up with a headache so seeing as I was awake anyway I woke DD and she came to watch the live streaming with me. We listened to the commentary in English from America. There were flashes and flares, the rocket went up, every so often the people on the ground at Nasa clapped enthusiastically.
DD said, "We don't understand any of this, I'm going back to bed."

Then the first stage rocket was ejected, then it made re-entry into the Earth's orbit, and finally it landed safely. More clapping from Nasa, I joined in. I wan't entirely caught up in the excitement yet but it would have been rude not to clap.

They announced a short break. Oh good, time for coffee. I made coffee and found the live streaming on the big smart tv screen, ready to watch the moon landing, or at least see more of the journey. My channel was still on a break but they showed how you could get an app on your phone to see pictures of the Earth from space. I won't bother - Design Home is taking up far too much phone memory already.

I texted a friend who I knew was also up watching. "What time is the actual moon landing?"
"Some time in April."
"You're kidding. I just made coffee."

Somewhere deep in my brain I knew it couldn't happen that fast, but I thought we were getting up for the actual moon landing, not the launch. When I saw that it was the launch I didn't cancel the notion about the landing. And then I felt a bit silly, I admit.

About

At the age of 46 and four years after I started the IVF process, I brought home my beautiful DD. This a blog about a woman for whom not being a mother was unacceptable. Add to the mix that I'm also an Expat, Jewish, British, Israeli (sort of), Single, a Teacher, a Writer, a Homemaker, an almost Vegetarian (it's a process), a recent Minimalist, and you have Midlife Singlemum.

Copyright

All texts and most photographs on this blog are the copyright of Rachel Selby. You may not copy or borrow without permission.